The Autism Podcast

In Season 2, Episode 12 of The Autism Podcast, Chris and James interview Abby Brooke, an autistic advocate based in Kenya and lead of the 'Walking Autism' initiative. During the episode, we hear all about Abby's fascinating journey towards diagnosis and self-acceptance, the aims and importance of her Walking Autism initiative, and some of the key issues and challenges facing the autistic and wider...

In Episode 11 of Season 2, Chris and James interview sensory specialists Jo Grace and Becky Lyddon (founders of the Sensory Projects and Sensory Spectacle respectively), as part of another recent livestream episode that the London Autism Group Charity have been running to support the wellbeing of the autistic and wider autism community during the Coronavirus / Covid-19 pandemic.  During the livest...

In Season 2, episode 10, Chris and James interview Joan Pons Laplana, an autistic nurse in the NHS leading a major new initiative called 'Neurodiverse Nurses' which aims to promote the inclusion and acceptance of neurodiverse nurses in the NHS. In this episode, we speak to Joan, about the initiative and its importance, particularly in relation to leveraging the abilities and strengths of such nurs...

In Season 2, episode 9, Chris and James interview Tigger Pritchard, an expert in Pathological Demand Avoidance, as part of another recent livestream episode that the London Autism Group Charity have been running to support the mental health of the autistic and wider autism community during the Coronavirus / Covid-19 pandemic.  In this episode, we talk about the work Tigger has been involved with,...

In Season 2, episode 8, Chris and James interview autistic advocate Kieran Rose about the threat to mental health for the autistic and wider autism community during the Coronavirus / Covid-19 pandemic.  To support the community, the London Autism Group Charity have begun doing a series of livestreams with interviews of autistic people and advocates around the topic of mental health and wellbeing....

In Season 2, episode 7, Chris, James and Lola Alvarez-Romano (a mental health expert and NHS psychotherapist) talk about the threat to mental health for the entire autism community during the Coronavirus / Covid-19 pandemic.  Clearly, the Coronavirus pandemic represents a public mental health emergency for all of us but in particular for the autism community who are particularly vulnerable. This i...

In Season 2, episode 6 of The Autism Podcast, Chris and James speak with Callum Brazzo, a well-known autistic performance poet based in Lincolnshire, UK.  We talk about Callum's upbringing and the experiences that led him into poetry and performance, including his struggles with poor mental health and finally get diagnosed in his early 20s. He explains his journey towards coming full circle and be...

  In Season 2, episode 5 of The Autism Podcast, Chris and James speak with Christa Holmans, also known as Neurodivergent Rebel, about all things neurodiversity. In particular, we talk about her own journey into late autism diagnosis, how her mental health interplayed with her journey and the stigma of mental health, what neurodiversity means, why it is so important and the stigma associated with i...

In Season 2, Episode 4 of The Autism Podcast, Chris and James speak with Lola Alvarez-Romano, an experienced child and adolescent psychotherapist who works to support the mental health of families in a special school based in North London. Lola talks about some of the key mental health issues she has observed during her time supporting families with a child with additional needs, the importance of...

In Season 2, Episode 3 of The Autism Podcast, Chris speaks with Venessa Bobb about the difficulties that various ethnic minority autistic people and their families face including stigma and when accessing support. Venessa is a well-known UK-based autistic campaigner and advocate of autistic people in particular those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities. She is the founder of A2ndvoic...

In Season 2, Episode 2 of The Autism Podcast, Chris and James speak with Rachel Aanstad, an older autistic adult based in the United States who runs the Actually Autistic Podcast . Rachel talks about her personal experiences with diagnosis, the impact autism stigma and the allistic social world has had on her, the complexities in generating reliable research evidence about older autistic adults, s...

In Season 2, Episode 1 of The Autism Podcast, Chris and James speak with Joseph Michael , an autistic adult, campaigner, advocate involved in a range of autistic-led organisations. He talks about his personal experiences and challenges during school and education, finding a sense of belonging and identity with the autism community, and all of the various work he undertakes with the autistic-led or...

In the final and 10th episode of season 1 of The Autism Podcast, Chris and James reflect upon and discuss Season 1 and the podcast's plans for Season 2. They discuss some of the issues highlighted in each episode to date, including SEN and EHCP issues in schools, the importance of how professionals conduct the diagnosis process and communicate with parents/carers, the impact of social media includ...

In episode 9 of The Autism Podcast, James speaks with Joanna Grace, the founder of The Sensory Projects , Sensory Engagement & Inclusion Specialist, TEDx speaker , trainer, and author. The Sensory Projects is a national and international project aimed at promoting inclusion through focusing on people whose primary experience of the world, and meaning within it, is sensory.  Joanna also delivers tr...

In episode 8 of The Autism Podcast, Chris and Kiran speak with Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou, an academic working with sleep experts and the autistic community in order to understand sleeping issues among people, autistic sibling well-being, mental health, participatory research approaches and more. Georgia works at University College London in particular at the LiLAS Laboratory which is a lifespan learn...

In episode 7 of The Autism Podcast, Chris and James speak with Dr Emily Lovegrove, a well-known anti-bullying expert, consultant and academic. Dr Lovegrove, who was diagnosed later in life as autistic, talks about her approach and philosophy on the issue of bullying including what constitutes bullying, its impact, why it happens, how to manage it, and how our responses to it are influenced by many...

In Episode 6, Chris talks with Anna Kennedy OBE, one of the most well known autism campaigners particularly in the UK. Anna talks about her extraordinary personal story and life including how she entered the world of autism. She then explains the various work she and her charity, annakennedyonline.com, are involved with including schools and respite centres she set up, The Give Us A Break campaign...

In Episode 5, Chris and Kiran talk with Carly Jones MBE, an autistic mother of two autistic girls, autism advocate and campaigner whom, since 2008, has been campaigning for greater acceptance, equality of diagnosis, education and safeguarding of autism women, girls and their families. We talk about her personal story including homelessness and some of the work she does to support the autism commun...

In Episode 4, Chris speaks with David Grant, the husband of Carrie Grant who featured in episode 2! David is a well known singer, television presenter and vocal coach and also happens to be a father of children with different additional needs including two autistic children. In this episode, David opens up about his own personal experiences during his journey of understanding and acceptance, and d...

In Episode 3, Chris and James interview Emma Dalmayne! Emma is a well known autism rights campaigner in the UK (and internationally) who campaigns against so-called autistic 'treatments', 'cures’ and mistreatment, in particular MMS (chlorine dioxide bleach being used to 'cure' autism). She is autistic herself having been diagnosed at the age of 37. Her youngest son was diagnosed before her which l...

In Episode 2, Chris and Emma interview Dr Carrie Grant! Carrie is perhaps best known for television, music and radio work but also happens to be a tremendous autism advocate and campaigner, and a parent of autistic children too. Carrie tells us her story and her views on the social and cultural issues that intersect with autism stigma and discrimination. She also talks about mental health, SEN and...

Episode 1 begins with introducing the show and what are we aiming to achieve with it and providing context about the London Autism Group Charity that is producing the show. We will then hear from the podcast team (Chris, Morgan, James, Kiran and Emma) including a bit about our personal stories with autism and some of our views about attitudes and the stigma towards autism, what needs to change and...